The Avs’ Ryan O’Reilly takes a moment against the Columbus Blue Jackets during the first period on Sunday, January 4, 2015. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)

I never thought RW Mikko Rantanen would be on the board at No. 10. And neither did Avalanche GM Joe Sakic and his staff. Sakic told me he was shocked that Rantanen wasn’t selected in the top six, and the Avs wanted to make a trade and get him at eight. But he was there at 10. Excellent pick to conclude an exceptional day for the Avalanche.

I'm thrilled to be welcomed into the @BuffaloSabres I've heard nothing but great things and I'm extremely excited to get started! #Sabres

Former Avalanche center Ryan O’Reilly wanted to become the NHL’s youngest player making $8 million (salary and cap hit). He wanted to be paid more than Steven Stamkos, Rick Nash, Jason Spezza or Pavel Datsyuk, among others. Check it out at GeneralFanager.com, which, along with CapFriendly.com, are the most friendly NHL sites since CapGeek.com, God rest his soul.

I can’t wrap my head around Factor’s salary demands, given his big-time struggles last season — along with most of his young teammates — and the fact he hasn’t been a plus NHL player since he was a third- or fourth-line center as a rookie in 2009-10. Check it out — his career stats are here.

O’Reilly’s camp told the Avs he wanted $64 million over eight years, equaling an $8 million cap hit. O’Reilly is 24, and apparently not thrilled with his $6.2 million salary in 2015-16. He wants to become the only $8 million man under 25; Stamkos, 25, is at $5.5M salary, $7.5M cap hit. Stamkos is probably the world’s top sniper (regular season anyway) and the goal-scorers make the big bucks.

O’Reilly had 17 goals last season. His replacement, Carl Soderberg, had just 13 for Boston in the same amount of games (82), but Soderberg’s five-year cap hit of $4.75 million is far more sensible, and according to Joe Sakic, Soderberg is the play-making center the Avs want to skate with power forward Gabe Landeskog and lightning-fast right wing Nathan MacKinnon. Soderberg, 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, will actually hit somebody, an aspect of the game O’Reilly rarely participated in.

Because of O’Reilly’s unreasonable salary demands, the Avalanche got younger, bigger and better equipped financially — now and in the future — by sending O’Reilly and fellow Irish chum Jamie McGinn to Buffalo for some of the Sabres’ top picks in 2012 and 2013. I mean, it’s like the Avs raided Buffalo’s draft classes, getting C Mikhail Grigorenko (2012 12th overall) and D Nikita Zadorov (2013 16th overall) plus forward J.T. Compher, the University of Michigan captain selected 35th overall in 2013, and Saturday’s first pick of the second round (31st overall) — which might deliver D Brandon Carlo of Colorado Springs to Denver.

Bottom line: The Avs got four players (two currently in the NHL) who are at least four years away from unrestricted free agency for two guys who are 2016 pending UFAs.

So … Great day for the Avalanche, which absolutely improved in every way, save some experience. The cap payroll decreased by $8 million, giving the Avs more than $16 million of cap room for next week’s free agency and signed their unrestricted guys like Joey Hishon and Grigorenko. Sakic said Saturday’s first pick of the second round might get traded. But I’m betting the Avs take Colorado Springs-raised D Brandon Carlo.

If those were truly Ryan’s demands, then I say the Sabres can deal with him. He tweets what an honor it was to play in Denver. He showed that honor by holding out on the team, signing an offer sheet with the Flames and negotiating from a ridiculous starting point. Business is business but let’s get real. That’s almost Sidney Crosby money. I love him as a player but I’d have to question his desire to stay in Denver. Have fun in Buffalo, Ryan.

It’s often said that the winner of a trade is the team that nets the best player. In that case, the short-term edge may go to the Sabres. On the other hand, the Avs gained a lot of cap space, picked up some serious potential and rid themselves of a recurring contract headache. If Roy can get the best from these young players, the Avs clearly get the better end of this deal.

Jimbotronn

I wonder if the $8 million refers to Briere’s, Hedja’s, and Wilson’s contracts coming off the books also? At any rate, I think the Avs save more than money here… they put an end to what had become a continual headache off the ice. Ever since his entry-level contract was expiring, O’Reilly has been a malcontent, overvaluing himself at every point, even signing with another team… whether he’s greedy, egotistical, or just wanted to play elsewhere, the Avs needed to move him out. Really, really good player, but the Avs are better off without him.

As far as “who nets the best player” is concerned, I have read a few opinions that Zadorov’s ceiling is top pairing defense. The Sabres might have the best player from this trade today, but that may not be true in a couple years if Zadorov becomes a legit top-two guy.

Jon E.

I think the hope would be to land someone like Sekera, a solid veteran defenseman to pair with EJ and slot Zadorov next to Barrie while he develops more. Either way, you fill out your top four which is something that has been missing for years and still have a potential top pairing guy in the future and with the Avs filling a lot of gaps in the farm through the draft (and recouping draft picks given up for Brad Stuart), the future is looking a lot better on the backend then it has in years.

Randy

Please not Sekera. He’s 29 and scored 3 goals in 73 games last year. Matt Irwin is bigger, tougher, almost a year and a half younger, and scored 8 goals in only 53 games for a lower salary. I think he’s worth more than Sekera but would probably come cheaper.

WorkingMan

We don’t need defensemen that can score. Barrie and EJ have plenty of offensive firepower to man the power play. What The Avs need is a defense that knows how to get the puck out of the defensive zone and can actually prevent the other team from scoring.

Randy

I agree that they need good defenders, but Irwin is known as a solid two-guy who has more size and toughness for clearing out the slot than Sekera. The added scoring is a bonus (not just on the power-play).

lordstanley01

I guess the $8M number is taken from the Buffalo deal alone. It’s just misleading because they had to sign Soderberg as a $5m replacement.

Jimbotronn

I think you’re right, and that’s what Chambers meant, but as you say it’s not a true extra $8 mil, as they’ve spent over half of it already.

Travis Ross

This is blown out of proportion. The player always start high and the team always start low. They meet in the middle and that is how contracts are made.
I would like to see the offers the Avs presented. I bet those are never “leaked”.
This trade can be summed up as proven players traded for potential players.
The sabers GM has been quoted saying that he is prepared to make O’Reilly the highest paid player for the team, goodbye leverage for the team.

Jon E.

If he’s starting at 8 and is already at 6, the middle ground would be 7/7.5 million – he’s still not worth that over 8 years in my opinion. You still have to sign guys like Erik Johnson and Nathan MacKinnon after next year. Sakic described the situation perfectly – 7-8mm for one player is too much for one guy in a cap league, especially with as many quality players as we have on the roster. If ROR was far and away the best player on the team, then sure, pay the guy, but that was never the case.

Travis Ross

I have a hard time believing Erik Johnson is worth any of those figures mentioned above.

DemAnalFissure

Kind of like Elway in denial with some players

Jon E.

Not saying he’s going to get 7 or 8 but he’s 27 years old at this point and becomes a UFA after next year, has been on team friendly contracts all the way to 27. He’s going to get paid one way the other and some years of 6mm+ seems likely.

DemAnalFissure

And you have Matty Doucehene making 6. That would irk him!

OCMS

ROR knows that he will eventually get paid- some GM will do it and sounds like Murray might be the guy since he has put himself in a position to need to resign ROR now that he’s made this trade.

Also, that $8M may have been what he and his agent told the Avs- an 8 year term is ludicrous- just so the Avs delt him. We may see him be less aggressive with Buffalo.

The Avs did well to get out from under this guy. I liked him game a lot, but the contract issues were too much to overcome and he may thrive in the less physical east.

lordstanley01

The problem is that O’Reilly was already being overpaid at $6M due to the deviously structured offer sheet from the Flames and the subsequently required qualifying offer from the Avs. His starting position for negotiations was a big raise on an already inflated salary. Another problem is that O’Reilly and/or his agent don’t seem to be negotiators. They just set their price and wait until somebody pays it. Fair play to him, I guess, when the Sabres meet his demands. Credit to the Avs for not giving in this time.

In hindsight, the perfect scenario would have been if the Avs had not matched the Flames’s offer sheet. They would have scooped up a few first round picks from the Flames who would likely have lost O’Reilly as well after he failed to clear waivers. That would have been a classic screw-up by Calgary.

Randy

The sad thing is that if the Avs had taken the picks and, like Calgary, drafted Sean Monahan, we’d have someone who scored 31 goals last year at age 20, the only NHLer under age 23 to reach 30.

Travis Ross

O’reilly was overpaid because the Avs failed to get him signed. Was it a screw up by Calgary to give the offer sheet or the Avs to accept it.

lordstanley01

The offer sheet by Calgary was tendered during the lockout year after O’Reilly had already played in the KHL for a few months. It’s been suggested that, had the Avs not matched, they would have received a few Flames first round picks as compensation but O’Reilly would have had to clear waivers before going to Calgary because of his KHL stint. Theoretically, Calgary could have lost their picks and then watched O’Reilly get taken by another team from waivers. Not exactly what they had in mind.

That’s the potential screw-up to which I was referring.

Randy

I believe Calgary would have given up only one 1st round pick (which they used for Monahan) but there would have been additional later picks as well. As I recall, Columbus would have had first crack at O’Reilly and Calgary GM Jay Feaster then would have been fired for incompetence.

jpwheels

I’m pretty sure of two things — nobody will miss the business man ROR turned out to be, but I think we’ll all miss him on the ice.
I’m damned glad the Avs got a trade done instead of chancing him getting away for nothing. So kudos to the management on that. But, I would have preferred having a bit more experience coming back. I’ve read about the potential these young guys have, and I hope they get there.
The cap space the Avs have ended up getting is a big plus in all of this too.
And we won’t have to wait long to see how Sakic & Roy use it.
I’m looking forward to free agency opening up next week.

Smell the Glove

I wouldn’t say “good riddance” since I really loved him on the ice, but I think the Avs did well on this situation. This could easily have turned bad, or yielded worse results in trade and even in the same division. Avs got fair value and quickly.

I don’t see a lot of comments on Ginner and I know he was injured a back injury at that, but man, offensively we didn’t replace very much up top with what we gave away. I’ll miss the Captain Morgan goals. Mackinnon and Duchene better be ready to bring it next season. No more dry spells and slumps. We need some goals.

DemAnalFissure

I think the Avs remember that perennial dweeb Stastny and his home discount claim. Another player highly overpaid and had another typical Stastny season in 2014.

And ROR at $8M is as good a laugh as Stastny at $7M. Glad the Avs dumbed him too. Now Matt Duochene needs to shop up as the highest paid player on the team. And Landeskg needs to play like he did before the Stuart hit.

12

it will stink if this is the norm in the NHL where the players are as greedy as they are in the other sports, but hey this is a business and there is alot of money in it and the players are going to want their cut

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.